THE phrase “every parent’s nightmare” is often used but, in this case, it is perfectly apt.

The sound of a screaming child is heard over grainy footage of an empty people carrier. Moments later, a man jumps into the back seat firmly holding a crying little girl. He is trying unsuccessfully to comfort her, saying: “Good girl, good girl”. They speed off.

This isn’t a dramatisation, however. It is footage of a British man “kidnapping” his own daughter from Poland, as seen in a new ITV documentary, Abducted. The narrator explains: “Britons are more frequently finding partners from abroad but when things break down, it can get messy.”

This is an understatement. In the UK every 12 hours a child is taken by a parent or family member and this film shows what happens when a parent, in most cases the father, tries to retrieve their child from an estranged partner who has fled abroad.

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Adam Whittington and Craig with his daughter

The devastating revelation for anyone caught in this situation is that, even with the backing of the courts, it can still be virtually impossible to bring back your own child.

Distraught and desperate parents are now going to so-called “retrieval agents” to rescue their children. More worryingly, unlike previous cases of abductions shown on TV, we are no longer talking about far-flung locations, such as Pakistan or the Middle East. These stories are much closer to home.

Father-of-two Craig Michael is walking around an empty child’s bedroom. It is two-and-a-half years since his daughter Crystal has slept in her bed. In 2005, Michael moved to Cyprus from North London where he met Marta, from Poland. They had two daughters, Crystal and Cassie.

Then, four years after they met, Marta abducted Crystal, who was then 15 months old, and fled home to Poland. Left in Cyprus, Michael is bringing up five-year-old Cassie alone.

“It’s heartbreaking,” says Michael, “but I’ve gone through so many emotions that I’m pretty numb to it now. I feel bad. I feel like I’ve failed but I haven’t forgotten that this little girl needs her dad. “I haven’t seen Crystal walk, talk or learn anything because she was so young when she was abducted, so I have a lot to catch up on. I am looking forward to that.”

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Her mother took her all the way to Poland

Both parents say they want the children together but one wants them in Cyprus, the other in Poland.

Michael has pursued the case through the Polish courts. Marta claims he was abusive to both her and the children and misused drugs and alcohol. A judge found in his favour and said there was no risk to Crystal and she should be returned to her father. Marta has refused to comply with repeated court orders over the past two years. With the law on his side, Michael turned to Child Abduction Recovery International (Cari), which specialises in recovering abducted children.

“Parental child abduction is at epidemic proportions,” says Adam Whittington, from Cari. He has worked for the Army and the Metropolitan Police. “It is crazily out of control. Most of our clients come to us, as Craig did, after they have done everything legally possible. They hit a brick wall. It leaves absolutely no choice to parents.”

Whittington is successful, too, even though his methods don’t look pretty. He claims to have retrieved more than 100 children from 50 different countries but he operates like a private investigator.

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Craig's daughters Castalia and Crystal

When the Polish authorities say they have been unable to find Crystal, Whittington begins his search at Marta’s parents’ hometown of Opole. It takes him only 11 hours to finds her. Michael travels to Poland to join Whittington. Their plan is to catch Marta “off-guard” and seize the child. They begin by following her grandparents and lie in wait outside their house, planning to snatch Crystal after she gets out of the car. When another car arrives, with Marta inside, Whittington calls off the operation.

Michael’s patience is running out. “We will stay as long it takes. We’re here every day, 6am in the freezing weather,” he tells his lawyer on the phone. “I want to get in the house [Marta’s] and take my daughter to safety.”

Whittington replies: “Every parent wants to do that. If you want to do that, I will walk. Do it your way and you will never see her again.”

Crystal is now with her grandparents and the men continue the surveillance. They hide near the house, waiting for them to return in their car. “In and out,” insists Whittington.

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“No ****ing about.” Michael gets his moment under nightfall and grabs his daughter as she walks into the house with her grandparents. We return to the grainy pictures of the empty car at the start of the show.

Michael is now with Crystal who says: “I don’t want to... I don’t want to... I don’t want to go.” Michael reassures her, saying: “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.” As the narrator points out, Michael is “a stranger to his own child having not held her for more than two years”. They speed away to Cyprus via Vienna. Later, he tells Crystal, who is now calmer: “I will never leave you again.”

Asked his feelings, he says: “There’s no words. I’m happy for her and for her sister.”

Five hours later Crystal is reunited with her sister but the story isn’t over. Marta continues to fight for custody despite pleading guilty to child abduction and receiving an 18-month suspended sentence in Cyprus. It is anyone’s guess how this story will finally resolve itself, if it ever will. For now at least, Crystal is happy to be with her sister again.

As a postscript for anyone considering such bold action, it is worth noting that the Foreign Office here advises against parents taking their children back, as it can be illegal in some countries and may put the child at risk.